#559. 3 Dead Girls (2007)

Directed By: Christopher Alan Broadstone

Starring: Tony Simmons, Gabriel Sigal, Lora Cunningham




Tag line: "One killer becomes the victim of another"

Trivia:  The Motel Room scene in Scream For Me was actually shot in the Director's bedroom

3 Dead Girls is a collection of short films by director Chris Broadstone, each unique in style and execution, yet with one important thing in common: all of them are very, very good. 

Though you probably could have guessed from the title, 3 Dead Girls features three films in all. Scream For Me opens with the murder of a girl (Lora Cunningham) by a disturbed young man (Gabriel Sigel) who didn't realize someone else was also coming to visit her, a demented rapist known only as the Madman (Tony Simmons). And as you can imagine, he was none too happy to find his intended victim already dead. The 2nd film, My Skin!, sees Death (Simmons) coming to collect the soul of a murdered housewife (Lisa Montague), only to discover she wasn't due to die for another 64 years! But not to worry; Death has something quite interesting in store for the killer. We wrap things up with Human No More, about a detective (Tony Simmons once again) who, due to the murder of his wife and son, has lost his faith in God (“A killer has come and taken my family from me” he says at one point, adding, in a somewhat defeated tone, “he has even stolen my vengeance”). But there's more to this story than despair, and even though he's the only person in the room at any given moment, the detective is never really alone.

As mentioned above, the three shorts presented in 3 Dead Girls are definitely unique. The initial killing in Scream For Me is brutal to watch, and goes on for what seems like an eternity. Yet it's nothing compared to what Madman does once he gets there. Simmons is strong as the psychotic rapist; he can even make an everyday item like duct tape seem creepy. My Skin! Is my favorite of the group, and is the 2nd in the collection to show a murderer suffering a fate worse than his victim's. Simmons plays a pissed off Grim Reaper, which might have something to do with the date on the calendar (it's Sept. 12, 2001, meaning Death has been doing a lot of this sort of thing lately). The film has an otherworldly quality to it, and the deliberate manner in which Death moves, right down to the way he loads a gun, is mesmerizing. Human No More falls back on psychological horror, and is not as straight-forward as the other two, yet boasts a look and feel that is just as engaging (the camera roams freely throughout the one-room set, as if to signify someone...or something...is watching). 

Masterfully directed by Broadstone, and with a trio of magnificent performances by Tony Simmons, 3 Dead Girls is not to be missed. 

Learn more about 3 Dead Girls by visiting Black Cab Productions